Parish Social Events - The Archives
We have a very full social life in our Parish. We do like to get together and have fun!
Below are some of the events we've had over recent years - but if you missed out on any of these, don't worry there'll be another event along shortly!!
Parish Walking Group
OPEN MIKE NIGHT - MAY 2011
We held our first ever "open mike" folk evening at the St John Rigby Centre on May 20th 2011. The capacity audience were entertained by a number of acts - and were encourage to join in! Everyone agreed it was a great evening - and we are already planning the next one. So if you fancy coming along and doing your stuff - then do!
Karen from The Deacons Euna and Ginny explain about their brother Sylvest
Even the audience joined in!
PARISH COACH TRIP TO LLANDUDNO - APRIL 2011
Despite Prince William and Kate announcing their wedding AFTER we'd arranged our coach trip for the following day there were only a few muzzy heads on board as a full coach set off to the Victorian Extravaganza event in Llandudno. The weather was great - sunshine all day! The Extravaganza was great - and this year, being its 25th anniversary - it was extra great! The event has all sorts of entertainment - from waltzers to George Formby tribute bands (no, honestly!) and from jugglers to steam organs - so there's plenty to cater for most tastes. And of course the journey home was livened up by the, now famous, "tacky prezzie" raffle!
Some of our intrepid voyagers One of the fairground rides at Llandudno
ROYAL WEDDING INDOOR "STREET PARTY" - APRIL 2011
We gathered at the St John Rigby Centre from 10:00am to hold our very own "street party". We were a bit concerned about the possible weather for April - so we decided earlier in the year we'd hold our street party indoors just in case! Around 50 of us (from primary school children through to pensioners) watched the whole event on our big screen. We started the day with a cup of tea and a croissant, and followed that with a fantastic buffet (including jelly and trifle, salmon sandwiches and, of course, sausage rolls!) washed down with a bucks fizz or two! By the end there wasn't a dry eye in the place - and no hungry tums either!
The audience join in a rousing "Jerusalem" Our buffet Queens - Dot and Maureen
MERSEY MUSIC NIGHT - MARCH 2011
In March 2011 we held a night celebrating the music of Merseyside. We converted the stage at St Francis of Assisi school into the Cavern. A dozen acts performed songs made famous by Merseyside acts - from Cilla to the Zutons, from the Spinners to the Searchers - and even a few by that other Merseyside group - what were they called? Oh, yes - that's it The Beatles. We even managed to persuade Fr John to bring his saxophone along and join in The Undertakers version of Money!
Amy Horridge and Fr John provide the "horn" section One of our young stars, Jamie Wooding
PASTORAL AREA VARIETY NIGHT - JANUARY 2011
In January 2011 we held our second annual Pastoral Area Variety Night at St Teresa's in Upholland. We invited acts from throughout our pastoral area to take part in the entertainment. Not only were we royally entertained by acts from a harmonica player to a barber shop quartet, we also had performances from Fr Tony Slingo and Fr Mike Thompson! And on top of all that we raised over £1,000 for the Handicapped Children's Pilgrimage Trust.
Fr Mike performs along with the Dinky Boys John Hanlon entertains the packed audience
PARISH WALKING GROUP
In 2009 one of our parishioners suggested that we start a walking group. So we did! Since then we have met monthly for either a local country or urban walk. Our country walks are usually reasonably flat (although they might involve some styles) and cover about 4 or 5 miles. The urban walks are to places of interest - we have done a walk between the two cathedrals in Liverpool and a Liverpool ghost tour. The country walks take place on a Saturday morning and start at 10:30 and are free to join - you don't need to be a "member" - just turn up. Details of all walks are publicised well ahead - just look at the parish newsletter of click here for "Parish Social Events - Forthcoming Events" page on the web. If you want, after each walk some of us like to put back some of that burned up energy by having a pub lunch!
 
Some of the group who went to The Lakes in 2010 Of course all this walking gives you an apetite!
SUMMER AND CHRISTMAS FAYRES
Our Fayres are two of the highlight events of the year. The Summer Fayre normally takes place in the grounds of St Richard's Church. We try to pack as much as we can do into the grounds - we've had beat the goalie competitions, dunk the Priest stalls and even skateboarding dogs! There are stalls where you can win everything from chocolate hampers to bottles of wine; there are stalls where you can buy everything from bedding plants to books. Our Christmas Fayre is normally held in a hall of one of the primary schools in the town. At these you can sample a mince pie, or some mulled wine, buy all of your Christmas decorations, meet Father Christmas and even have a go at trying to win some of those hard to come by Christmas presents on one of the many stalls.
 
More cakes than you can eat in an entire luchtime! Would you buy a raffle ticket from these two?
ST GEORGE'S NIGHT
Somebody said that, as a nation, the English are, unlike many other nations, bad at celebrating our patron saint's day. So that sounded like a challenge! In 2010 St George's Day fell on a Friday - so that made it even more certain that we were going to start our own revival of the St George celebrations! We held a medieval night and encouraged everyone to dress appropriately. The entertainment was based around good old traditional singing and dancing - with an archery competition thrown in for good measure!
 
So is this what a (k)night club looks like? Some of the fair damsels of Skem.
CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA - 2010
Each Christmas we get together and have a good time - either with a pantomime or a Christmas Extravaganza. 2010 was an Extravaganza year. Good old Mother Nature obviously has good taste and tried to show it by hitting us with a couple of feet of snow on the original date of our 2010 Christmas Extravaganza. Nobody, acts or audience, could get to our venue - so we had to postpone it. However, we were determined not to let a bit of snow damped our enthusiasm (so to speak!). So in January 2011 we had our Christmas Extravaganza! A little lat for 2010 perhaps - but certainly the first celebrations for Christmas 2011! Our Extravaganza saw a dozen acts perfom to a packed audience - and we all soon got into the Christmas spirit. We were entertained with a wide range of music - from the old favourite "White Christmas" to the, I think undeservedly, less well known "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer".
 
Mike and Helen Tedford entertain the audience Father Christmas came along to show us all how not to dance
PARISH PANTO - 2009
We always write our own Panto - and set it in Skem - with all of the crew from the parish. We've even seen a priest or two in a pair of tights! Not a sight for the faint hearted!! In 2009 we staged Cinderella Rockafella - and around 30 of us sang, danced, played the music ... and even acted a bit! Behind the scenes another 20 helped out with costumes, lighting, choreography and general dogs bodying. But all of the effort was well worth it as we played to two sell out nights who just loved it... Oh no they didn't ... oh yes they did!!
 
The 2009 panto crew! Girls - if you don't moisturise this could be you in a couple of years!
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